Out in the world, our great overlord is just another broke adventurer.
What They Say:
Momonga sets out with Narberal disguised as humans under the names of Momon and Nabe for the city of E-Rantel. There they register to become adventurers in order to gain more information about this unknown world. As they do, evil gathers around them.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Overlord is on the verge of breaking into major development from the world all around as well as the characters we’ve met and many more to come. Momonga takes his proper venture out into the great beyond, covering himself from head to toe, going only by “Momon” (and insisting Narberal goes by “Nabe” and acts as his equal), and taking every measure to ensure nobody discover that he holds any power or is from Yggdrasil, should he come across someone else who knows what that even means. In contrast to the sense of royalty Momonga has enjoyed until now, this requires he start from the bottom, joining a guild as the lowest rank and taking on missions, specifically the most trivial as one of his apparent status isn’t allowed to seek out bigger ones yet.
Fortunately, the lousy people you can find anywhere gives Momonga the opportunity to show off his strength enough for a personal employer to seek him out and offer more substantial work. It all seems simple enough from his perspective, but as dangers are brewing in the world of villains (wherein Momonga would fit right in), Khajit’s machinations will almost certainly coincide with Momonga’s humble attempts at making some quick cash and turn it into something much bigger.
Seeing Momonga suffer from being broke in this new environment is a refreshing change of pace for him, and makes him a bit more amusing and endearing in the process. That’s not to say it’s an episode full of tough times for the simple skeleton, as the women who were fighting over him early on continue to do so, even after Momonga explicitly tells Albedo that she only has feelings for him because he messed around with her settings on a whim. Of course she doesn’t mind at all (which is more warped the more you think about it), and the lust still flows. As an adventurer with a female companion who thankfully isn’t constantly throwing herself at him, he comes up with some decent ideas to progress, even if he’s enjoyably clumsy in doing so. He manages to score the biggest job he can get without breaking the rules by demanding he break the rules enough that it seems perfectly reasonable afterward. That’s a good businessman, and interestingly could’ve implied some connection to his life as a worker in the outside world. The job that ultimately finds him shows promise of being connected to Yggdrasil, but Momonga is being very cautious in avoiding any disastrous meetings of former players who may not be as friendly. Above all, he’s using every aspect of the world to learn new things and evaluate how to progress at each step, which is always a favorable characteristic to experience in a protagonist. Even as he keeps every experience in mind, he may not be able to comprehend just how complex it all is and how much he’s already gotten himself into.
In Summary:
The idea of NPCs often involves a lack of humanity, but as we get to meet people of a town, it truly feels like a rich, vibrant atmosphere of real people trying to live real lives. Momonga is no longer the special one he was at home, or at least those around him don’t realize it yet. There’s a lot going on and Momonga is certainly working his way into much more of it more than he knows, but at the same time we don’t know the entirety of what his thoughts are plans are, only that he’s constantly taking in his surroundings and thinking of what to do next. It’s all very interesting.
Grade: B
Streamed By: FUNimation
Review Equipment:
Roku 3, Sceptre X425BV-FHD 42″ Class LCD HDTV.
